Federal Register Notice
December 21, 2000
Volume 65, Number 246

AGENCY: Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), DOT.

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44
U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), this notice announces that the Information
Collection Request (ICR) abstracted below has been forwarded to the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for extension of currently
approved collections. The ICR describes the nature of the information
collection and its expected burden. The Federal Register Notice with a
60-day comment period soliciting comments on the following collection
of information was published on September 22, 2000 (65 FR vol. 185,
page 57426).

Affected Public: U.S. and foreign air carriers that provide
scheduled passenger service.

Abstract: BTS Form 251 is a one-page report on the number of
passengers denied boarding voluntarily and involuntarily, whether the
bumped passengers were provided alternate transportation and/or
compensation, and the amount of the payment. U.S. and foreign air
carriers that operate scheduled passenger service with large aircraft
(over 60 seats) must submit Form 251. However, carriers do not report
data from inbound international flights because the protections of Part
250 Oversales do not apply to these flights. The report allows the
Department to monitor the effectiveness of its oversales rule and take
enforcement action when necessary. The involuntary denied-boarding rate
has decreased over the years from 4.38 per 10,000 passengers in 1980 to
1.15 for the nine months ended September 2000. The improvement has been
made in a period when load factors and passenger enplanements have
risen. These statistics demonstrate the effectiveness of the `volunteer
provision'. The publishing of the air carriers' individual denied
boarding rates has negated the need for more intrusive regulation. The
rate of denied boarding can be examined as a continuing fitness factor.
This rate provides an insight into a carrier's policy of treating
passengers and its compliance disposition. A rapid sustained increase in the rate of denied boarding often is an indicator
of operational difficulty. Because the rate of denied boarding is
released quarterly, travelers and travel agents can select carriers
with low bumping incidents when booking a trip. This information is
made available to the public in the Air Travel Consumer Report and on
the web at http:http://www.dot.gov/airconsumer. The Air Travel Consumer Report
is also sent to newspapers, magazines, and trade journals. Without Form
251, determining the effectiveness of the Department's oversales rules,
would be an uncertainty.

Comments are invited on: whether the proposed collection of
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of
the Department concerning consumer protection. Comments should address
whether the information will have practical utility; the accuracy of
the Department's estimate of the burden of the proposed information
collection; ways to enhance the quality, utility and clarity of the
information to be collected; and ways to minimize the burden of the
collection of information on respondents, including the use of
automated collection techniques or other forms of information
technology.